SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 22 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

A sentence is provided in direct speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding indirect speech. The scientist said, “We have been working on this project for months.”

(a)The scientist said they had been working on that project for months.
(b)The scientist said they have been working on this project for months.
(c)The scientist said that they were working on that project.
(d)The scientist said that we had worked on this project.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The reporting verb said is past, so the quote shifts back.

Tense: present perfect continuous have been working → past perfect continuous had been working.
Pronoun: we, the scientist's team → they.
Demonstrative: this project → that project.

"for months" stays, so the duration survives → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The scientist said they have been working on this project for months. — It leaves have been working and this exactly as spoken. After the past verb "said", the standard conversion moves both back: had been working, that.
(c)
The scientist said that they were working on that project. — Were working is the back-shift of "are working", not of "have been working". It also drops "for months", so the report loses how long the work had run.
(d)
The scientist said that we had worked on this project. — Keeping we puts the reporter inside the team. "This" is unchanged, "had worked" loses the continuous sense, and "for months" is dropped.

Concept

After a past reporting verb (said), the tense in the quote moves one step back. Present perfect continuous (have/has been + -ing) becomes past perfect continuous (had been + -ing).

Words tied to the speaker's here and now shift too: this → that, here → there, now → then.

Pronouns follow the people. The scientist said "we", and reported by someone outside that team, it becomes they.

The word "that" after "said" is optional in indirect speech. Option (a) leaves it out and is still correct.

Key facts

Has/have been + -ing becomes had been + -ing after a past reporting verb.
In indirect speech, this becomes that and these becomes those.
A universal truth keeps its present tense even after "said": He said that the sun rises in the east.

Study next

The back-shift table: present perfect → past perfect, simple past → past perfect, will → wouldDemonstratives and time words in indirect speech: this/that, now/then, today/that dayWhen the tense does not shift: universal truths and habitual facts

Common traps

Changing the verb but leaving "this": the keyed report changes both.
Choosing (c) because "were working" looks past: it is the back-shift of "are working", and it drops "for months".

Present perfect → past perfect is keyed at 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.23 ("He said that he had seen that movie already."), and we → they with this → that at 18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.22.

The exception, a universal truth kept in the present, is keyed at 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.21.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 65 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.